Arkansas Tech’s Rebecka Surtevall (left) and Golden Suns head coach Amy White study a putt during the Great American Conference golf championships this season. Surtevall was selected as the GAC Female Athlete of the Year on Monday. (THE COURIER / Submitted, ATU)

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Tech’s Rebecka Surtevall was named Great American Conference Female Athlete of the Year, while Henderson State football player Kevin Rodgers was named GAC Male Athlete of the Year at Monday evening’s GAC Night of Champions event held at the Little Rock Marriott.

Surtevall becomes the second consecutive ATU female to garner GAC Athlete of the Year honors (Rosie Silva won last year), while Rodgers repeats as Male Athlete of the Year. The league’s sports information directors voted on the Male and Female Athlete of the Year awards; they were not allowed to vote for their own student-athletes.

In the three-year history of the Great American Conference, only Surtevall has ever earned the GAC Player of the Year honor. After another record-setting year, Surtevall added GAC Female Athlete of the Year to her list of accolades.

In 2013, Surtevall broke through as the first ATU woman’s golfer to earn an individual spot to the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship. This year, Surtevall helped her team earn its first ever appearance in the Championship following a third-place finish at the NCAA Division II Super Region II Tournament. At the NCAA’s, she matched her career low in the final round of the event with a 4-under 67 to finish third in the nation.

In addition to winning her third-straight GAC Player of the Year award, Surtevall claimed her second GAC Championships individual medalist honor. She won or shared individual titles at the Drury Fall Shootout, the Dallas Baptist Women’s Classic and the Holiday Inn Missouri Western State Invitational. She finished inside the top six in all but one of the Golden Suns’ 13 tournaments.

One year after becoming the program’s first All-American, Surtevall added First-Team All-American honors from Women’s Golf Coaches Association, the first First-Team All-American for the GAC.

In addition to Rodgers’ nod as GAC Male Athlete of the Year, he was also named GAC Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and Harding’s Kristen Celsor garnered Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors.